Goodbye Post Dinner Sweet Treats:(

So I am going to begin this post my admitting one of my guiltiest pleasures of being an adult, and that is being able to have a sweet dessert after every dinner (I probably have had a sweet dessert after every meal occasionally but only on special occasions!).  It's like my reward to myself for eating all my vegetables, I will sit down and have a piece of chocolate or ice cream or even just a plain biscuit, or some fruit like strawberries or watermelon, just anything really no matter how small that just contains sugar.  I don't know when in my adult life this ritual started, I just know that I was like a fussy child, rewarding myself every day with a sweet treat for my amazing ability to eat all my veggies.

Last week I was having these super healthy meals and so after every dinner I began a ritual of rewarding myself with a piece of fruit as I wasn't allowed any chocolate or ice cream.  However, as part of the I Quit Sugar Program you need to quit fruit and all other sources of sugar whether considered "healthy" or not.  I have to admit the biggest struggle I found with this was that I had no reward for myself for eating all my vegetables during my dinner.  On occasion as I was eating my dinner I actually thought, well what's the point in eating this healthy food, there's no reward for it all anyways.

I know there are some people that are now reading this thinking, "give up fruit, what kind of mentalness is this at all sure isn't fruit good for you!".  To be honest when I first realised we had to cut out fruit for 4 weeks of the program I had the same thought.  My daily banana for breakfast is another part of my adult life rituals, and I couldn't figure out how I was possibly going to face the day without it, I actually considered going on some sort of bereavement leave from work for the 4 weeks to mourn the loss of bananas from my life.

After reading a little behind about the reasons behind why you need to quit fruit, I understood it a little better, I'm not saying I completely agree with it (mainly because I miss it in my life so much and I have a habit of disagreeing with stuff that I just don't like sometimes just because no other reason), but I do agree with it a little more.  The reason the I Quit Sugar Program advocates for cutting all sugar including fruit for four weeks is to give your body a chance to recalibrate, and attempt to break the sugar addiction completely.  It also helps your taste buds to adjust to having no sugar, which means when you reintroduce small amounts of sugar and fruit after the 4 week period, you may not actually find you "need" them as much as you used to.  Fingers crossed for me this means I will be able to eat a small bit of chocolate and walk away from the fridge without hearing the chocolate continually call out "eat me, eat me, eat me" until I've gone back and finished the block off!

What I have realised this week without my daily post dinner sweet treat is that I actually don't need it it's just something I thought I had to have, something that has become a habit to me, much like a cigarette I guess except people don't seem to view it exactly the same.  The first day I was convinced I would starve to death at any second because, despite having just eaten a big plate of salmon and veggies, I just couldn't possibly be full enough to survive til morning because I didn't have my treat.  After surviving a few nights with no post dinner treat, I have realised that this treat was something I could actually survive without.

Apart from the lack of sweet treat rewards and morning bananas in my life, overall I am still really enjoying the I Quit Sugar Program.  I do still dread the sugar hangover coming back, but so far it hasn't come back, and this week I have felt that my head is clearer than it has been in a long time, like a fog of sugar has lifted from my brain or something.  Until next time when hopefully the sugar fog and sugar hangovers will have stayed away:)